Snap Art
Snap Art lets you stylize your photos, turning them into images that simulate pen & ink sketches, watercolor or oil paintings. It uses edge detection to separate objects from their backgrounds, then reinforces these outlines to create the pencil, pen/ink, even comic book styles of drawing. With all these processes to carry out, the original Snap Art software ran quite slowly but Snap Art 2 is greatly improved.
Comment
Stylistic techniques such as the streaky brushstrokes of Van Gogh or the tiny dots of George Seurat can be simulated by software, but does the result come anywhere near to the expression of the original. Alas no. You can click "Pointillism" in Alien Skin's Snap Art but you will not create Seurat's "Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte" quite that easily.
Nonetheless, this software does quite a good job with the comic book style of Roy Lichtenstein and it packs a mean "Impasto" that would certainly intrigue Van Gogh.
Tech info
- Plugs into: Photoshop CS3 or later; Elements 6 or later; Fireworks CS4 or later
- OS: Windows XP onward; Mac OS X
- Price level: Approx. $200
Alien Skin
Alien Skin Software has been producing graphics software since 1993. It is based in Raleigh, North Carolina.
From the same vendor:
- Exposure
- Eye Candy
- BlowUp
- Bokeh
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